Well, those documents seldom reach the public eye and are only relevant for so long. Besides, polls show Americans rank foreign policy among the least important issues facing our nation. But here's something that may truly interest you about our classified secrets: Too often, instead of protecting us from destruction, they protect our leaders from embarrassment.

Advertisement

These secrets aren't only shielding high-ranking officials from the personal embarrassment that comes with taking the term "embedded" too literally. They also hide bad policies.

Is the Food and Drug Administration too cozy with pharmaceutical companies? That's a secret.

Does the Pentagon know that our drones actually kill a lot more civilians than it officially acknowledges? Classified.

Did the Obama administration know full well that the Honduran military ousted a democratically elected leader in a coup? Classified.

When a government uses secrecy to hide wrongdoing and waste from its own people, the only way that the people can find out and do something about it is for an insider to blow the whistle.

One of the highest-profile whistleblower cases involves Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, a U.S. army intelligence analyst accused of delivering hundreds of thousands of State Department cables and other government documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. This cache helped topple Libya's Moammar Gaddafi and other repressive governments.

Manning, in theory, could face the death penalty for "aiding the enemy." But it's more likely that he'll just spend the rest of his life behind bars for revealing embarrassing information.

Clearly, secrets are important to those in power. Whether the deeds are evil (torture), crooked (sweetheart contracts), embarrassing (high-level affairs or lying to our allies), or simple cover-ups (killing civilians), the guys in charge will go to great lengths to make sure we don't hear about them.

This Orwellian landscape isn't improving. For every reinstatement of a job or payment of damages to a whistleblower, a dozen new censorship rules pop up. America's whistleblowers deserve our support.

Our recently re-elected leader issued a directive in October that laid the groundwork for protecting national security and intelligence whistleblowers from retaliation. But so far, President Barack Obama's track record is unimpressive.

Federal officials continue to pursue embarrassing disclosures with the same ferocity as either President Bush. And George H.W. Bush headed the CIA before his single-term presidency.

In watchdog circles these days, debate flourishes over whether the Obama administration is the worst ever when it comes to hounding employees who reveal America's dirty laundry. Six people have been prosecuted under the Espionage Act during Obama's first term, twice the number in all previous administrations combined.